The love we find, The pain we feel
by Res4Freak
Summary: It has been five years since Judy and Nick saved zootopia from the night howlers that plagued the city. Five years they have been partners through the good and bad the city has to offer, how ever with a looming threat coming to threaten not only predator and prey relations, but Nick and Judy, they will have to realize not everything can stay safe forever.
1. Just another morning

_**Zootopia, place where anyone can be anything**_. And over the past few years, it seems that the statement actually may have merit. Five years have passed since the whole city was gripped by fear due to the night howler incident orchestrated by assistant mayor Bellweather, all thanks to a small enthusiastic country bunny and a sly fox con artist. Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde have been keeping the streets clean as partners all while fighting the stereotypes of not only bunnies and foxes, but also predator/prey interaction.

It was a cold October morning in Zootopia; most people are still in bed waiting for the sun to rise over the tall towers and beautiful sculptures that litter the town. But in the middle of Savannah Central, on one of the floors of the Grand Pangolin Arms Apartments in what most mammals would consider a glorified closet, someone was about to beat the streets to the hustle and bustle.

An orange alarm clock perched on the window sill was blaring, causing a mass of grey to roll over and slam the snooze button. _Ugh it's five thirty already?_ Judy groggily thought to herself. Her being raised on a farm, she was used to the early mornings especially with 200 other siblings running around the house it's hard to stay asleep. But today she was especially tired, given she had six hours of sleep after the sixteen hour day she worked beforehand. _Well, guess I will be living off coffee most of today. Maybe Bogo will give me paper work to do instead of patrols. Wait, did I honestly just think that?_ Judy shook her head. She must have been exhausted to think of wanting to sit behind a desk all day. She slid off her bed and stood up to stretch, hearing her back and joints pop and crack as she reached for her aged roof. _Thank goodness I will be out of here soon and have a place with its own fridge!_ She smiled as she remembered the apartment she was looking at the other week; it was just off the corner from where her current place was. It was more money per month as it included all her utilities, and had a fridge, washer and dryer and her own SHOWER! She walked towards her closet and grabbed a towel and change of clothes and her tooth brush, then made her way to the communal bathroom to grab a quick shower.

She walked the old, stained halls to the bathroom, hoping no one was in there so she could get in and out fast enough to grab a coffee and energy bar before she had to leave. Luckily it was empty, and also didn't smell like urine and mold for once. She smiled as she walked in, _good to know that they finally listened to me and clean it way more often._ She started to enjoy yelling at the old armadillo to get it cleaned more often, as she usually felt like she may catch a disease whenever she walked in. She quickly undressed and turned on the water to the shower, made sure it wasn't going to scold her like last time, and hopped in.

The warm water was incredibly refreshing as she stood under the shower head, allowing the water to flow down her ears and her body. She grabbed the body fur wash and rubbed it across her body, moving over her scars and scratches she earned from the job, each with its own story from stabs to slashes to even cuts from chasing perps through the many districts. _I wonder if nick is up yet?_ She wondered, _dumb fox probably has hit the snooze button at least 3 times by now._ Laughing to herself, she turned the dial to cold water to refresh her awake, stood in the stream for a minute, then turned off the shower and dried herself off.

She slipped into her shirt and pants before she brushed her teeth, as she usually ended up having the toothpaste foam land on her shirt as she brushed. She finished up as she rinsed out her mouth out then turned the light off and made her way down the hall back to her room. Getting back inside she turned on her coffee maker to percolate as she got into her uniform, slipping into the skin tight uniform which had become her favorite as it wasn't constricting as her regular blues which she wore on occasion. As she reached for her badge on the bed, a tapping was heard on her window that snapped her out of her regime. "Ugh, of all days it has to rain, it's when it's ten degrees outside." She sighed as she went to pour her coffee into her carrot thermos; one nick bought her three years ago when her travel mug broke when it hit the ground when she exited the cruiser. " _ **Only the best for my carrots**_." She remembered him saying with that loveable smirk as she laughed and playfully pushed him when she saw the now favorite accessory for every morning.

Nick Wilde. Her partner for over five years, the one and only person who can make her laugh and simultaneously annoy her while showing how much he cares about her. She smiled as she thought about him, _Oh boy, how I love that fox_. Judy had come to terms with her feelings for Nick about three years ago when him and her where in the hospital after a ram went savage and sent them both to the hospital. She was the least hurt of the two, getting out with a few scratches and one less appendix, however nick was worse off. He had three broken ribs, a fractured arm, internal bleeding and was unconscious for about a week with how hard he was hit. She remembered how she, even after being discharged from the hospital, she never left his side as she blamed herself for the pain he was in. Many a night was spent crying wondering when he would wake up, and her having to deal with the fact she was in love with her partner as she couldn't imagine a future without him.

Judy shook her head to regain her thoughts as she looked at her phone, she got a text from nick. [Hey carrots, I'm up and waiting for you to pick my foxy tail up. Let's get a move on fluff =P]. She laughed as she replied, [I am always up before you dork, on my way out the door now] and with that, she grabbed her keys, the thermos and jacket then locked her door. As she walked down the steps of the apartment building, the rain was cold and unforgiving as she made her way to the cruiser and opened the door, shivering as she started the car. Even though she was positive today was a decent start to a long tired day, she felt as though something bad may happen. _Oh well, it's probably cause of my lack of sleep that I feel uneasy._ She was inclined to believe herself as she usually over reacted when she is tired. She shook off the feeling and started her way towards nicks apartment, which was only ten minutes away from hers. "You better actually be ready for when I get there nick." She spoke to herself as she made her way down the wet road to his abode.


	2. Unlike any other

Nick woke up in a panic, heart beating a million miles a minute as he grabbed his chest looking around the room. He realized it was only him in the room and was able to relax, flopping back down onto his mattress while he caught his breath. _God it felt so real, like I had actually lost her this time,_ Nick thought to himself as he was able to calm his pulse now knowing there was no immediate threat in the area.

He was thinking over the dream he just had, him and Judy were hot on the tail of a predator who had just murdered a helpless sheep when they chased him into an abandoned building. It was relatively dark as the windows were incredibly dirty so Judy could barely see five feet in front of her, so Nick had to stay close to her while she had out her flashlight checking the rooms with their tranq guns out. Carefully walking through the halls trying to see or hear the perp before he heard them, nick saw a shadow run up ahead and called after it; "FREEZE ZPD", but the animal kept running. Nick ran after him as Judy tried to keep up, running out of the room she was just checking, Judy called after him to slow down and not run around corners but he barely made out her voice as he ran at full speed after the blur. _That's very unlike me to just run off and leave her behind, why was I so encouraged to catch him, enough to risk my life and hers?_ Nick thought as he tried to pick up where he left off, soon he had lost the suspect after taking too many turns to try and cut him off.

"Damn it where did he go? Did you see him carrots?" Nothing but silence answered him. Judy was nowhere to be seen as he looked around the hallway, "JUDY? Where are you?" He yelled in a hushed voice slowly walking around trying to find her. As he rounded the next corner he heard a commotion, and what sounded like a confrontation between two people fighting over control of something, raised voices and grunts. _Oh no, JUDY!_ Nick ran towards the noise at blistering speed, jumping over fallen garbage cans and miscellaneous debris littered across the floor, rounding the corner into an open area where he saw Judy and the animal, which looked like a jaguar, fighting over a gun.

"FREEZE, ZPD! DROP YOUR WEAPON NOW!" Nick aimed his tranq pistol at the predator who was thrashing everywhere trying to get the grey bunny off him and use the gun.

"NICK JUST SHOOT" Judy commanded as she tried to hold the gun in her grip, dodging the bites and chomps of the angry animal.

"I can't get a clear sho-"

The noise was deafening, nicks ears rang as he put together what just happened. "Oh god please no, JUDY!" He saw her eyes go wide as she seemed to go limp and fall towards the ground, hitting it with a dull thud that still shakes him to his core. Upon hitting the ground she coughed up blood and started to shiver, blood pouring out of an open wound in her stomach as she convulsed from the shock. The jaguar looked as if he smiled and spoke the words that seemed to rip him apart; "You weren't fast enough fox."

He ran off as nick picked up his partner, holding her stomach to try and stop the bleeding. Her being as small as she was didn't help her odds of surviving the gut shot, as she didn't have as much blood in her body compared to nick. Nick had very little time to get her the help she needed before she... _No it won't come to that damn it!_ He reached for her radio on her belt, trying to call for help between panicked breaths. "We have an officer down, repeat officer down! Send medical personnel ASAP!" but all he got was static. _SHIT! How do I have interference in here!_ Nick held the pressure as he talked to Judy to try and soothe her, "Hey carrots it's going to be okay, just stay with me okay?" he reached for his quick trauma kit and found gauze to put on her wound.

"We are going to get you fixed up Judy I just need you to hold on a little longer. Why am I getting nothing but static on this damn thing?"

"Nick...", she grabbed his arm while he was dressing her wound, her voice weak enough for Nick to barely hear it; "It's okay Nick.. I'll be oka..."Her arm went limp and fell to her side as he finished bandaging her stomach. "See carrots? Now we have to get you.."

He looked down and saw her eyes, empty and half closed with her mouth slightly open, no air coming out of the small bunny. No signs of life.

 _Oh no, please not like this... Not her..._

" **JUDY!"**

* * *

Then he remembers waking up with what felt like a huge weight on his chest. He was staring at the ceiling thinking how real it felt, to the point of almost in tears. _Just keep calm Wilde; it was nothing more than a bad dream._ He looked over at his alarm clock, glowing green numbers cut through the dimness of the room. It was five twenty-seven; he looked out his window to see the dark clouds with the little amount of light from the town illuminating the sky. _It's going to be a long cold day today nick,_ he thought to himself as he got out of bed and moved towards his door and shambled his way into the main room. Walking towards the bathroom he turned on his coffee maker and the light to the small kitchen he was lucky to have, compared to Judy who has very little in the way of one. Nick smirked as he remembered when she first came over to his little piece of paradise in Savannah Central, having moved four years ago from his dank and grungy apartment in the rainforest district.

"You actually have a kitchen! And your own bathroom and you pay less than what I do for essentially a closet! How did you manage to work that out?"

"What? You don't think I got the price cause I'm just devilishly handsome and all round smooth talker?" he smirked as he looked at Judy, who of course wasn't buying it. Rolling her eyes she smiled and asked "Seriously nick, how did you get this place this place at such a good price?" Nick laughed and smiled at her; "I go way back with the owner and told him I needed a place so he cut me a deal, also had a lot of money saved from when I was conning so it wasn't much of an investment". Judy's ears fell behind her head as she let out a sigh, "Maybe I should just live a life of crime, seems like it's easier to live than following it." "No way there fluff", nick said as he rubbed his hand on her head in between her ears, having her giggle and push his hand away and glare at him. Nick was unfazed by the look and continued; "I just went straight and narrow and now you want to be a criminal? You bunnies can't make up your minds now can you?" he laughed as he pictured her trying to con someone or even try and rob them. Judy's face scrunched up as she playfully shoved him; "I was kidding you doofus, always was ment to be an honest and good cop! No low-life activity for me!"

Nick fumbled into his bathroom, turning on the light as she stared at himself in the mirror. He has gotten much bigger over the years, not height-wise, just in overall muscle and toned body. His chest was more defined as he worked his upper body to be able to contend with medium to larger mammals much easier than when we first started on the force, more muscle on his upper arms and bigger forearms. He wasn't freakishly big for a fox, but he defiantly filled his blues up a lot more over the last few years, people noticed, including most girls on the force who ogled him most mornings when we walks into the precinct. Including Judy when they worked out in the gym, as he could feel her staring at most times, turning to catch her and make her blush and look away. He enjoyed watching her go red, brightening up her ears and face that was usually a shimmering grey and silver-ish. Speaking of silver-ish, nick had some of his own. Not to do with his age as he wasn't that old yet, when he was in the hospital all those years ago after the 'run in' with the ram, his fur showed to have went white from his left ear to his right eye in a narrow patch which seemed to draw people in to concentrate or even catch their attention. The doctors summarized it as when the body experiences high stress, the hair can lose colour, leaving white hairs in certain locations. And if there was anything he was at the time, it was heavily stressed.

Nick looked over his body, seeing the scars all over his body, some from the job, others from when he was hustling and from being a kid doing stupid stuff. Nick smiled as he remembered some of the times he narrowly avoided on a slab by simply talking his way out of whatever jumping that were happening. The amount of times he impersonated an undercover officer just to get out scott free was definitely something he could get arrested for. Thankfully they can't read minds or bogo would have his ass in jail by the end of the day. Shaking that thought out of his head he turned on the shower, kicked off his pajama pants waiting for it to warm up and stepped in to take a quick shower. The dream he had made him sweat profusely so taking a quick shower was not a bad idea, as no one likes the smell of sweaty fox fur. Not even Nick. He grabbed the body fur wash, Old Mice, and rubbed it into his reddish fur, trying to get every knot of fur as well in the process, all while wondering how Judy was fairing, considering the long shift they worked yesterday walking the beat and then sitting through case files as the day came to an end.

 _Don't blame her for being as tired as she was last night, paperwork is as boring as it gets and even worse when you lose a bet and have to do all that days paperwork cause a fox made a losing bet._ Nick had made a bet with Fangmire and Delgato that if they got a certain amount of arrests by the end of the day, we would do their paperwork, but if they did, they would have to do Nick and Judy's. Needless to say Nick and Judy did about eight arrests of paperwork before they could go home on top of the six arrests they did trying to beat them. He laughed slightly as he rinsed himself off and stepped out and turned off the shower, his body heavy with all the water his fur caught. Grabbed a comb and a fur dryer and proceeded to comb and fluff himself up, after he was done he brushed his teeth and rinsed his mouth out. Before he walked out of the bathroom he looked in the mirror, winked at himself and smiled; _you're one handsome fox_ _Nicolas Wilde._ As he let the bathroom he heard the coffee finish brewing, walked over and poured himself a small cup, grabbing the blueberry flavoring he kept above his brewer and had a few sips of the black gold in his hands. _Sweet blueberries this is heaven in a cup._

He made his way into his room to grab his blues and get dressed, it was five thirty nine as he grabbed the uniform and started putting it on. "I should probably text her and see if she is alive." He shuttered at the choice of words he used, _nice choice considering you dreamt she died you idiot._ As he put his arms in his sleeves he grabbed his phone and opened the contacts with several carrot emoojis in the contact name. [Hey carrots, I'm up and waiting for you to pick my foxy tail up. Let's get a move on fluff =P] when he sent it he thought the tongue face may have been too much,

' _kling'_

He looked at his phone and read her reply, smiling; [I am always up before you dork, on my way out the door now]. He glanced out the window and saw it was now raining quite decently, "Great, can't wait to be wet and cold on patrol today", his smile leaving his face as his ears dropped and he frowned. Making sure to grab his keys and phone, he filled up his Snarlbucks coffee mug with coffee and blueberry flavoring, and while grabbing his jacket in one smooth jerk, locked his door and made his way to the lobby. Walking down the stairs he sipped his coffee while putting on his jacket one arm at a time, of course doing it the hard way compared to just putting the mug down and putting it on. _Nice and easy movements nick, don't spill coffee on yourself again._ He waited for about seven minutes then saw the familiar cruiser pull up to the front of the apartment. He made his way out to the car door, pulled on it but nothing happened.

She locked the door.

He could see her smiling while she waved at him to get in, knowing he was getting soaked outside in the rain. "Very funny carrots now open the door, it's freezing out here." She rolled down the window so he could hear her, now he could see how much she was enjoying this. "Are we going to make any more bets with Fangmire and Delgato today? Or have we learned our lesson?" Nick just nodded as he looked defeated in the cold, "Sorry I couldn't hear you nick, got to speak up a bit mo-" Nick reached in and unlocked the door, opening it and throwing himself in the chair, which was now wet thanks to the window being down. He looked at Judy who was trying her hardest not to laugh at how miserable he was looking; "Sorry nick, but you did look so adorable in the rain and I didn't want to miss an opportunity to pay you back for yesterday." Nick smirked at her as he started to work his slyness; "Oh its fine, just wait till you see what I have planned for us today, how you think they will go for a week of parking duty if we get more arrests than them?"

"Don't you dare Nick!"

"What it could be fun, either way I see them in the joke-mobile or I see how cu-"

"If the next words out of your mouth are the c-word, I will turn this into a wall and kill us both"

"I was going to say how curious you will look when we win" he said trying to cover up the near fatal slip.

"Dumb fox"

"Sly bunny"

* * *

A figure standing by a window, looking out over the black expanse of clouds and rain before him, was tapping his claw on the side of the window as he thought; _such a rainy and gloomy day._ He heard the sheep he had tied up in the corner crying out for help, trying to get her screams to go over the tape covering her mouth and outshine the thunder outside. A sinister smile crossed his face as he turned to see his victim, now having tears streaming down her face as she tried to scream louder. He walked towards her, a blade in his hands as it glint from the small amount of light in the room, illuminating his figure wearing a plastic suit as to leave very little evidence.

 _No better time to destroy the city's heroes._

He grabbed the sheep by the rope he used to immobilize her; "shhhh it will be okay my dear sheep, you needn't worry." He ran his hand across her face while looking her in the eyes, a look of terror but also confusion came across her face when his hand stopped to grab her fluff on her head "what I'm about to do to this city will be far worse than what I'm about to do to you". She gave one more scream as he put the knife to her throat, permanently silencing the poor mammal.

 _The fun is only just beginning my dear._

* * *

 **AN:** **Hey everyone who made it this far, this is my first ever story I have written so I just want to say thanks for making it through the second chapter! This is what I want to be my average length of chapter to be but I am trying to get them to be longer as I feel they flow better when you tackle a story such as this. Also I you have any feedback about what I should change or improve on, or if you feel I should just stop trying (jokes of course), feel free to leave a review and let me know how I'm doing! Anyways I have rambled on long enough, next chapter we will get into the main focus of the story so hold on tight everyone!**

 **Another AN: Hey guys, after a certain someone left me a review (he knows who he is :D) I have gone back and made some changes to the spacing of the story and added some last minute things to the dream sequence, nothing major I promise! I am hoping to have the next chapter out sometime this weekend but with family visiting the latest it will be is Monday. So if you have any questions feel free to send me a message or write a review! Thank you again and have a good day/night!**


	3. Deadly Premonition

Driving down the road towards the ZPD, Nick and Judy were having their usual argument over who was the better superhero, for nick it was Batmantel, the jaguar billionaire orphan who fights crime the city cannot handle on their own, and Supermammal for Judy, an alien from the planet Nipton who was raised to help those who can't help themselves. As per usual Nick was calling her choice of hero into question; "oh please carrots, Batmantel would destroy Supermammal in a fight. He's a genius billionaire who was trained by ninjas. NINJAS! It doesn't get much better than that. Your favorite hero just got his powers 'cause of our sun." Nick had his trademark smirk on his face as he moved his hands around to emphasize his statements, covering his mouth and top of his face so you could only see his eyes.

Judy rolled her eyes while holding back a laugh as he started making stereotypical karate noises. "You say that knowing his biggest enemy is a weasel dressed up like a clown, who usually gets the upper hand on him even though he's the world greatest detective," she said with a sly grin on her face; "furthermore he's just a regular jaguar, whereas supermammal is an alien lion! He has no immediate weaknesses, and he regularly fights enemies who could be considered gods! Your "heroes" biggest threat is a man with a domino mask who makes alliteration and shoots people with guns"

"Clark's biggest weakness is a glowing green rock."

"Bruce keeps hiring kids to help him fight crime, not very responsible for someone who's trying to protect the city. And he needs a KIDS help! How can someone like him be your favorite 'superhero'?"

"Oh he's not my favorite."

"And furthermore h- wait he's not?" Judy was caught off guard by his statement; "then why were you trying to defend someone you don't like?"

"Nope, I'm a spider-pig fan moreover than batman fan," he said with a cocky grin, "I just like arguing with you, and it's adorable watching you get flustered." Nick felt something hit his arm causing him to yelp as he didn't see it coming; he rubbed his arm as his ears dropped looking betrayed. "Ow, what was that for?" Judy glanced over to nick who could see the satisfied smirk on her face, "Oh I just like the look on your face when I hit you, it's simply adorable." Nick laughed as he put his hands behind his head and leaned back in the seat; "Hey that's assaulting an officer fluff, I could bring you in for that."

"Like chief Bogo would let you arrest me, he would probably give me a promotion for knocking some sense into you." The smile visible out of the corner of nick's eye as he fake gasped and put his paw up to his chest, "Ugh my hearts bleeds from the stab you just made carrots." He fell back into the seat laughing at his own joke. Judy made an audible groan as she pulled into the precinct, driving to their parking spot in the multi-tier parking garage to escape the rain.

"Oh you fox, so emotional."

"You know you love me carrots." He said leaning towards her, the smirk across his face looking for the affirmation he always heard with that statement. _Oh not today Wilde,_ she thought as her face went flat; "meh sometimes." Nick looked shocked when the words left her lips; he reeled back into his seat while Judy laughed hysterically. "Oh don't be so whiney slick, you know I'm kidding." She playfully shoved him as she grabbed her thermos and exited the car, slamming the door leaving nick in the passenger seat alone with a smile on his face. _Oh how I love that bunny._ He heard a knock on the window as Judy motioned to hurry up, nick grabbed his mug and stepped out and walked to the elevator with her.

* * *

Nick had noticed over the years how much more they liked to rib each other, and how most of her jokes outshined his most of the time. Judy had gotten better at taking a joke and even better at timing her comebacks to stun the poor mammal who thought he could get the upper hand on her. They took the elevator up to the lobby of the precinct, where when the doors opened they saw the familiar shape of a rotund cheetah dancing to gazelle's single "Pred and Prey".

He looked up from his Gazelle app and saw the two and lit up with a smile, "Hey you two! How was all the paperwork you had to do yesterday?" Nick felt Judy's face go sour as she remembered the bet nick had roped her into with Fangmire and Delgato, and all the extra hours she had to spend doing their paperwork.

"Oh it was great," Nick said over enthusiastically while looking over at Judy who was giving him the death stare; "we are getting so good at it we should just move down to records so it's the only thing we do!" Judy groaned as nick smiled. "Oh you two are so adorable together! So when will I get a wedding invitation?" Clawhauser had been rooting for the two since he saw Judy crying in the hospital when he came to see nick. He never told Judy he was outside the door when she admitted her feelings to nick, trying anything to get him to wake up, that she just wanted to see him smile again and how she blamed herself for his injuries. It's not something you just bring up in conversation during a traumatic time, _Hey Judy how are you doing? I just heard you love nick by eavesdropping a private moment, so how is he holding up?_

He always just left it alone, if she wanted him to know she would have said something the moment he woke up all those years ago.

Judy blushed slightly as her ears heated up, nick laughed as he shrugged his shoulders; "well we haven't really picked a date yet, she wants a summer/fall wedding and I prefer it to be a winter wedding, also can't decide on the flower colour, I want auburn red with white roses and she wants grey roses with white perennials." Judy giggled as she found it adorable he even knew what perennials where, and how clawhauser was over-reacting to his joke. "Yeah he's very stubborn when it comes to the colours and setting, I would do it tomorrow if he wasn't so picky about everything." She leaned into nick as she wrapped her arms around his chest, nick didn't skip a beat and wrapped his arm around Judy, pulling her in close while he gave an audible sigh, "Oh I only want the best for your big day fluff, you deserve to be treated like a queen on the day you marry this handsome and lovable fox."

"Well I think lovable is too strong of a word, maybe more mildly tolerable. Yeah that sounds right."

"Oh you wound me carrots."

Judy and Clawhauser laughed as nick nearly fell over from over reacting to her statement. "Aw, do you get weak in the knees when you are around me slick?"

"Oh you know me; I can't help but fall for you Judy."

Nick held out his arm as Judy wrapped hers around it, they looked over at Clawhauser and he tipped an imaginary hat towards him, "Well we must bid you adieu as we are required for the meeting dear Benji, until next time." They walked arms linked towards the bullpen, as Benjamin leaned on the desk and sighed at the two; _they will find out pretty soon how much they love each other._ He giggled as he went back to his phone and gazelle took over from there.

Nick loved playing around like that with Judy whenever someone made a point of saying how good they looked together, as he knew that if it ever came to pass that he could be with Judy, in a heartbeat he would romance her till she was sick to her stomach. It also was nice to be this close to her, embraced in hugs or mock holding hands whenever they messed with the others at the station. It was minor but he lived for those moments, and dreamed of the day where he could just hold her, and do nothing but tell her all the things he's wanted to say since the day on the sky-tram he opened up to her, leaving himself temporarily vulnerable before changing the subject and not coming clean with how he saw her in that very moment.

They entered the bullpen and it was business as usual. Everyone was either talking about last night's game, arm wrestling while others cheer them on or just talking about what they had done the night before. Delgato was mid-sentence when he noticed the two mammals had their arms around each other walking to their chair; "Well I'll be damned. Hey nick, you finally pop the question yet?" Everyone stopped talking and turned their attention to the two, who remembered they had their arms intertwined in each other as they stopped right in the front of the board room. Judy blushed and ears dropped as she prepared to let go, but then nick held tight and brought her in close and placed a kiss on top of her head.

Her whole body froze as she turned bright red and threw her face into his fur, trying to hide blush from the other officers; "Oh of course I did! We were going to invite you to the wedding but I am very aware of how rowdy you can get, so I will just upload the pictures to Furbook for you to see!" Nick had a smirk on his face as the whole room erupted in laughter as Delgato smirked; "Aw don't be like that! My paperwork would make the best wedding gift as you seem to do it so well!" Judy laughed as she threw her two cents in to the fray; "Yeah then your work actually gets done for once with as few errors as possible!"

"Oh it was just one time, you guys ever going to let that go?"

"Chief had to call six different hippos because you don't have clean writing" Nick threw in as the office howled in laughter. Delgato slumped back into his chair as the others around him were ribbing him all over again, unable to get a word in to defend himself. Just as the two of them sat down in the chair, Chief Bogo opened the door and walked to the podium. "Alright sit down and shut it. SHUT IT!" The whole room went quiet as everyone sat upright in their chairs, careful not to breathe too loud and anger the towering water buffalo. Chief looked sterner than he normally did, as if something more troubling was on his mind.

"Today we have several important priorities on the docket, so I will not be wasting any time. When you hear your names move your ass up to the front and grab your file and get out." Nick had a confused look on his face, as he knew something was wrong since Bogo rarely talked to his officers like that. _What's eating him? He's never this cranky unless I open my mouth during roll call; even then he's not this angry._ Maybe it had something to do with the deal he made with Fangmire and Delgato, but Nick couldn't place it. Nick was brought back from his thoughts when Judy gave him a soft elbow, causing him to realize they were the last ones in the board room. "Hopps, Wilde," they shuddered at the boom in his voice, "I want the both of you in my office in 5 minutes. Go to your office, drop your things and get don't make me wait." He stomped out the room and slammed the door, causing both to flinch in their seats.

"Do you think he's mad at the bet you made yesterday?" Nick looked down at his partner who seemed more worried than he did, the worry in her eyes tore through him as he was feeling guilty if that were the case; "I have no idea hon, but whatever he's upset at, we are about to get the brunt on it." Nick got off the chair and held his hand out to help her down, when he saw the open eyed look on Judy's face, which was now bright red. Nick raised an eye brow in confusion; "What's wrong carrots? Did I say something wrong?"

"You called me hon Nick."

 _Oh crap._

Nick's eyes went wide as he just stood there with his hand held out as he realized what he just let slip. _How the hell did that slip out?_ Nicks thoughts went wild trying to figure out how he was going to explain his way out of this. Then he felt something on his cheek which snapped him back into reality, when he saw grey fur rise and drop to the ground as he raised his paw to his cheek.

Judy had kissed him.

He was overcome with emotions as his thoughts ran wild. Never would he have thought Judy would be the first to kiss him. He finally looked down at her and saw the smile that was on her face, her beautiful amethyst eyes framed her face. "Come on slick, we have to go see Bogo before he gets any angrier than he already is." Judy giggled as she hopped over to the door and swung it open, leaving nick dumbfounded as he stood in the room. A smile grew across his face as he ran to catch her, with only one thing on his mind.

 _I knew she liked me._

* * *

 _I did it. I kissed him. I kissed him and he liked it!_ She giggled and squealed to herself in their office. Judy didn't even know what she was doing until her lips hit his cheek, and by that point it was already too late. Not that she regretted it by any means. She left her jacket and thermos on her desk as she couldn't shake the smile she had on her face. _What does this make us though? Are we a couple? Or was it just a fluke that he said it and didn't mean it? Or am I just over reacting?_ Judy went with the latter as she didn't want to deal with the stress of all those options.

Just as she got her thoughts together she heard the door open and saw it was nick. She smiled and walked towards him; "Alright slick nick, we better get a move on befo-"She was grabbed by nick before she could finish, pulled towards his chest and all she saw was his face light up with a smile, his emerald eyes complemented by his red fur, the white stripe between his eyes only seemed to make him even more handsome. "Hey what's gotten into you?" Before she could wait for an answer, Nick placed his muzzle lightly on hers. She was taken by surprise, tensing up and her ears shot for the sky, only until she gave into her feelings and melted into the kiss, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as she kissed back, her mind overloaded with happiness, excitement and passion. He pulled back and looked deeply into her eyes, now shimmering with what he assumed as pure ecstasy. "I have wanted to do that for the past five years carrots, now I don't know what took me so long"

She lightly slapped him across the face causing his to move his head to the left, enough to have felt it, but tenderly that he wasn't hurt. Shocked, he turned and looked down at her touching the side of his face; "What was that for?" Judy had a smile on her face the whole time, thus confusing nick even more, she giggled as she rubbed his face where her hand hit him; "That's for making me wait so long", she then pulled him in and planted a kiss where he was slapped, and looked at him with a smirk as he was trying to figure out what exactly happened, "And that's for finally doing something about it, you sly, dumb fox." Nick smiled and just held on to her for a few seconds before Judy pulled away, before nick could ask what was wrong, Judy giggled and looked him in the eyes; "As much as I want to keep this up and talk about what happened, we are on duty and also making Chief Bogo wait longer than he has to. So we should get moving nick." She walked past him as he followed her with his eyes as she waited at the door for him.

"Very true carrots, as much as I would love to keep this up, that buffalo scares the hell out of me." He ran up to her and they walked out the door together and up towards the door of their precinct chief, about to knock when they heard his voice tear through the morning quiet; "Just get in here now!" Nick and Judy shuddered as they walked into the office, made it to the chair and when Nick sat down he reached out for Judy's hand and pulled her up to sit next to him. "We don't have a lot of time here, so sit down and keep your mouths shut." The two sat in silence and nodded their heads in agreement, not even wanting to try and push his buttons. He threw his glasses onto the table and let out a sigh, he looked as if he was trying to figure out how to start the conversation.

"As of last night we have had two cases of night howler attacks, both ended with the antidote being administered, but both ended with them having a bad reaction to the serum causing cardiac arrest." Nick and Judy were shocked; they looked at each other as they tried to figure out what he just said. It was quiet for a few seconds, then Judy broke it trying to talk in a normal voice but came out close to a whisper; "Sir, the serum was tested to make sure it wouldn't react badly to anyone. Even when introduced to other drugs and substances it couldn't kill anyone." Bogo nodded in agreement, "Very true Hopps, however when we tested their blood to see what may have changed, we found out this is a genetically altered strain of Midnicampum holicithias. One that when the serum is introduced, it causes the strain to work overtime instead of suppressing it, so they go into an even more savage rage until their heart cannot keep up with the demand."

"I thought we arrested Doug a couple years back?" Nick chimed in, causing Bogo to be caught off guard; "He was the one who knew the serum well enough that he could alter it to make it stronger or weaker." Judy looked up at Nick, who looked more worried and angry than Bogo was. And he had every right to be, the night howler case was closed four years ago. Night howler was still turning up being used in random attacks and as an addition to certain kinds of drugs. _But when we arrested Doug three years ago, night howlers stopped showing up on the streets. Who could he have trusted with the formula? And why wait so long after to come back on to the market?_ Judy mind was swirling with every question that came to her mind, then she had a moment of clarity, and one name popped into her head.

Bellweather.

"Yes officer Wilde, he was arrested and is still in jail for the next eight years. However when he was interrogated while we were booking him, he said there wasn't anyone else who could make the serum compared to him so he didn't share the information with anyone. He has also not had any visitors to see him since he was put into Prikers Island." Nick fell back into his chair, knowing that meant someone else out there has the know how to alter the genome, and that the case had to be re-opened.

"Sir, what about Bellweather? She was released two years ago on good behavior and five years' probation. Maybe she has something to do with this?" Nick looked at Judy as he gave his head a shake, _of course, how could I forget about that twisted sheep?_ They both looked at Bogo; his huge figure shrank into his seat as his hoof pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a loud sigh; "There lies the problem Ms. Hopps, about an hour ago we received a call from an anonymous source about a disturbance that occurred early this morning. When we sent some officers to look over the area, they found the door to the room kicked in and a body lying in the center of the room, surrounded by debris as it looked like a scuffle." He looked at the both of them, and they could already tell what he was going to say;

"The body was of a sheep, tied up and murdered hours before the attacks occurred. It was Dawn Bellweather, and a note was written on the wall in blood." Both stunned, they looked at the picture of the crime scene, and the message shook them to their core:

 _ **This is just the beginning Nick and Judy.**_

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ **So a little later than I hoped (sorry family first girls/guys!) but hey it's out! Who saw from the beginning that the sheep was Bellweather**? **I bet you didn't! Next chapter is going to kick us into high gear, more mystery and action (and some more fluff as well) is coming your way dear readers! Leave a review or pm me letting me know how I'm doing and if I should change anything. Until next time everyone!**


End file.
